Friday, July 13, 2012

Improvised
Explosive Device Training Aids Discovered at Two Airports – These weren’t tests on TSA, these
were non-TSA instructors who thought it was OK to place these items in their checked
baggage.As I’ve said before, we’re all too familiar with instructors
and other people in this type of business needing these sorts of items for
their jobs. As with all inert training items and replicas, we don’t know
they’re not real until we’ve gone through all the motions. This can include
evacuated baggage areas and closed checkpoints which lead to delays and missed
flights. People that need to travel with INERT items should plan ahead and
contact their preferred shipper about mailing the training aids to their
destination.

A passenger at Norfolk (ORF) had
simulated detonating cord, simulated sheet explosives, and two 3.5 ounce cans of
propane in his checked bag.

A passenger at Carlsbad (CLD) was
traveling with inert training materials in their bag.

Six
Bladed Star of Death
– A throwing start with six folding knife blades (see photo) was discovered at
Los Angeles (LAX).

Grinding
Grenade – Grenades
are supposed to explode, but this one grinds! A novelty tobacco grinding
grenade was discovered at San Diego (SAN). Read here
and here on
why inert items cause problems at checkpoints. We don’t know they’re inert
until we check them out and checking them out can often inconvenience you and
your fellow passengers.

Fireworks
are Prohibited –
As you can see from the image, this passenger at New York Kennedy (JFK) went a
little above and beyond. Just as fireworks do I suppose?

Items
in the Strangest Places
– It’s one thing to forget you had a prohibited item in your bag, but when you
intentionally try to sneak it past us, you could wind up being cited or even
arrested by law enforcement. Here are a few examples from this week where
passengers tried to sneak items past our Officers.

A folding knife was discovered
concealed in an aspirin bottle at Minneapolis (MSP).

A knife was found concealed in a
belt buckle at San Jose (SJC).

Marijuana was found concealed in a
flashlight in checked baggage at Jacksonville (JAX). We’re not looking for
drugs, but you can probably imagine that marijuana in a flashlight would look
odd on the monitor.

A 13” knife was found concealed
under the lining of a carry-on bag at Sarasota (SRQ).

A small knife was detected
concealed inside the lining of an empty knapsack in the carry-on bag of a Tampa
(TPA) passenger.

People
Say the Darndest Things –
Here is an example of what not to say at the airport. Statements like these not
only delay the people who said them but can also inconvenience lots of other
passengers if the checkpoint or terminal has to be evacuated:

A passenger at New Orleans (MSY)
said the following to an airline gate agent: “I will get on a flight even if I
have to blow up the airport and call myself a terrorist.”

Body
Scanner Discoveries This Week –
There were a total of 12 illegal and prohibited items discovered this week with
the body scanners at: Ontario (ONT), Los Angeles (LAX), Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) ,
2 at Hilo (ITO), 3 at San Francisco (SFO), 2 at Reno (RNO), St. Thomas (STT),
and Des Moines (DSM).Items were found in hands, pockets, and
concealed in the groin area. Among the items was a folding knife that a
passenger surrendered prior to the pat-down after alarming the body scanner.

Put
That in Your Pipe and Smoke It
– Officers at Las Vegas(LAS)
found several boxes of snappers in a carry-on bag along with a glass pipe.

Miscellaneous
Prohibited Items -
In addition to all of the other prohibited items we find weekly, our Officers
also found firearm components, realistic replica firearms, stun guns, brass
knuckles, ammunition, batons, and a lot of sharp pointy things.

Firearms
- Here are the
firearms our Officers found in carry-on baggage since I posted last Friday.

Unfortunately
these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about
these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are
finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the
throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up
with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. This is a friendly reminder
to please leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on
an individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law
enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had
these items.

Hey Bob,before all those lengthy posts start one after the other, can I just summarize them? Please?

1. How are drugs harmful to a plane?2. How are fake grenades or other inert items harmful to a plane?3. How many of those items were found with the porno-scanners?4. How about the shocking way xxxx person was handled at xxxx airport by TSOs?5. Where is the video of xxxx event?6. When I, my father / mother / daughter / son / friend of a cousin 3 times removed, etc went thru xxxx airport we were treated rudely. Our xxxx was taken away, we were spoken to rudely, our rights were violated, etc.7. They yelled at me.8. Mission creep.9. I'm calling/writing a letter, etc. to my congressman, the president, Geraldo Rivera, etc.

Ok Bob, now we don't have to see all those posts that just reiterate the stuff mentioned above. They can just refer to the number!

Please elaborate on the other eleven prohibited and illegal items found with the body scanners. I want to know what sorts of dangerous items were found with the scanners. They must be less dangerous than a knife since that was the only one mentioned. I'm glad they keep knives off of planes, but they really aren't that dangerous if you think about it. Somebody with a knife may be able to injure a couple of people on a plane at most before being subdued by other passengers. Of course that same person could stab a bunch of people outside of a plane as well.

Twelve items were found with the body scanners. How many false positives were generated? The last time I flew, the body scanner indicated I had something in my right front pocket, which was totally empty. Several minutes of everyone's time was wasted checked this false positive.

What is the false positive rate of these scanners? What percentage of the time do they miss weapons, etc? Are these things any better then just randomly searching people?

Of course the TSA is searching for drugs as well as money and media of which they don't approve. Here is proof-positive, from a briefing given by a top TSA official at the 2009 Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques (SITA)conference:

So, from the reported failure rate of aproximately 70% and the number of finds reported, we can assume nearly 70 guns made it on. Since the TSA apparently needs their advanced imaging machines to find items in passengers' hands, one wonders if that's where any were "hidden" ;)

It's obvious. They're doing a good job of demonstrating their ability to detect a terrorist carrying dangerous items, should a terrorist carrying those items ever present himself for TSA screening.

Since it appears that actual terrorists are very few and far between, the TSA have to demonstrate their effectiveness by interdicting drugs, toothpaste, and various simulated or replica items that serve as surrogates for items that truly are threats to aviation. As long as the TSA can present weekly statistics showing their effectiveness at finding these surrogate items, we can have appropriate confidence in their ability to find bombs or other items associated with terrorist plots.

What is "appropriate confidence"? BAsed on the latest publicly-available results of independent testing, should a terrorist ever happen to stumble into a checkpoint carrying explosives or weapons, there is a 30% chance that TSA officers will detect the threat and avert a horrible catastrophe.

A 30% chance of catching terrorists might not sound very impressive. But it actually is worth crowing about each and every week, because it's undeniably much better than nothing. As long as the TSA can produce weekly reports showing that their screening is better than nothing, they're indeed "keeping up the good work."

Even an agency that has earned a reputation for ineptitude can be considered excellent, if the standard for excellence is sufficiently low. And the TSA's posts on this blog prove that their standards are indeed abysmal. So the TSA truly deserves congratulations on doing an excellent job!

Where is the video of xxxx event?When I, my father / mother / daughter / son / friend of a cousin 3 times removed, etc went thru xxxx airport we were treated rudely. Our xxxx was taken away, we were spoken to rudely, our rights were violated, etc.

The interesting thing about the body scanners is how they have been rejected by other countries. The backscatter x-ray models have been banned by Europe due to health concerns. Germany scrapped using the MMW scanners due to false positives as evidenced in this quote:

"Over 800,000 Germans voluntarily tested the scanners at an airport in Hamburg from September 2010 to July 2011, during which time airport security reported so many "unnecessary alarms" that Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said the technology, "despite the high detection performance," has not yet matured and is "not yet suitable" for general practical use. Local press reports put the false alarm rate high as 49 percent and said sweaty armpits had been the culprit multiple times"

The false positive rates can be witnessed if you stand outside security and watch how many people are patted down after the scanner when there is nothing there. I know I've been patted down when nothing was there. Plus they lengthen the time it takes to get through security. All that for a machine that seems to find drugs and toothpaste most of the time.

The scanners seem like a colossal waste of money with possible health risks when most items are still found with the metal detector and x-ray machines. Anybody can look at the weekly list of found items and see that almost all of them are caught with metal detectors and x-ray baggage screening.

"The false positive rates can be witnessed if you stand outside security and watch how many people are patted down after the scanner when there is nothing there. I know I've been patted down when nothing was there."

Bob, will you address (I know you won't but thought I'd ask anyway) multiple reports of screeners touching people, who have just come out of the scanners, without warning?

Hey Bob, do you want to comment on these? I really hope the feeding tube story turns out to not be true because that is beyond sick if the TSA did strip search her, confiscate her food, and handler her feeding tube and used chemicals on it. The strip protest article may keep me out of the Portland airport. I don't think I want to see some people stripping in protest. :)

1. Perpetrating a huge fraud on the American public by representing a jobs program as a security force. Even the basics of background checks are frequently "omitted" from the course of normal business.

2. Employing the largely unemployable. In today's job market, a non-HS graduate would be toast but they can be dressed up in a blue shirt, paid more than the market would indicate on the premise that the force is providing security.

3. Portraying a largely dysfunctional workforce - the percentage of TSA screeners involved in criminal conduct is at least an order of magnitude greater than the organizations to which the TSA likes to imply it is similar, such as LE.

4. Showing that using the groupthink, screeners can normalize bullying and mistreating their fellow citizens. An indication of the corrosive effect of such groupthink is putting an accused pedophile in a management position with regular contact with the public. Another indication is the reflexive, "our investigation shows the screeners did nothing wrong" reaction to any accusation of misconduct. The response of a properly run organization would be, "we are investigating and we will make the results of our investigation available to the public we are pledged to protect and serve." Speaking of which, when was the last time you heard the TSA describe its mission as protecting and serving the US public?

Yet another incident for you to ignore, Bob (or at least claim it didn't happen):

"Fort Worth woman 'humiliated' after Love Field pat-down"

"Melinda Deaton arrived at her hotel room embarrassed and exhausted. The Fort Worth grandmother's trip to Minnesota for treatment at the Mayo Clinic started with tears and anger.

"I felt humiliated," Deaton said.

Deaton — who has a medical condition — said Transportation Security Administration agents at Dallas Love Field crossed the line after they noticed something hanging from her stomach. She told them it was a gastric tube to flush toxins from her body.

They pulled her aside for a pat-down. Deaton said it happened behind a screen and not in a private room, and away from her luggage. Agents asked to look at the tube."

1) Pat-down not done in private.

2) Not done where she can keep an eye on her luggage.

3) TSA screeners aren't doctors, and are not qualified to 'look at the tube'.

"When I pulled my shirt out and they catch a glimpse of it, they both go, 'Ugh!'" Deaton said. "I said, 'Thank you for your professionalism.'"

The TSA, rude and crass? Why, how unexpected.

Deaton's experience didn't end there.

Her medical condition requires her to eat only soft foods. She claims that when agents checked her luggage, they threw out her containers filled with applesauce and pudding.

TSA stealing stuff from passengers? How unheard of.

She told them it was her food, and asked for a supervisor.

According to Deaton, the supervisor grabbed the food from the trash, screened it out of her sight, and gave it back.

"What did they do to check it? It was out of my sight," she said. "I'm not eating this."

Whatever happened to the rule about screening items in the presence of the owner? - Oh, wait, this is the TSA we're talking about there.

In a written statement, the TSA told News 8 it "respects the privacy of the passenger, and will reach out directly to her."

The scanners seem like a colossal waste of money with possible health risks when most items are still found with the metal detector and x-ray machines. Anybody can look at the weekly list of found items and see that almost all of them are caught with metal detectors and x-ray baggage screening.

That's exactly why the TSA are so committed to using them. They're the sort of fancy costly technology that is absolutely irresistible to an unaccountable bureaucracy whose leaders know they will perpetually enjoy an unlimited blank check from Congress. Fancy technology also makes for impressive security theatre, which convinces at least some people that the TSA is doing an excellent job.

The inherent intrusiveness of scanners that expose passengers' nakedness also makes the devices utterly irresistible to anyone in the law enforcement or security business. The ability to subject everyone entering a checkpoint, guilty and innocent alike, to what undeniably amounts to a strip search is something police have dreamed about for as long as police have existed. Now that this technology exists, it's something the TSA must have!

It doesn't matter what the scanners cost. It doesn't matter whether it's effective. It doesn't matter whether it creates health risks to passengers or even to TSA employees. It doesn't matter that the scanners produce so many false positives that they slow down screening. (TSA leadership probably consider that a benefit. They believe that effective security needs to be as intrusive and uncomfortable as possible for passengers. The additional intrusion of pat downs to resolve false alarms therefore enhances security.)

It doesn't even matter that the TSA's very own weekly reports consistently show that the scanners aren't worth either the cost or whatever risk they entail. The scanners fulfill the long-time dream of law enforcement officials. And that alone completely justifies their use. Especially if nobody has the authority to hold the TSA accountable for effective use of billions of our tax dollars.

Frank said..."Good News! It's legal in Oregon to strip naked at a TSA grope station in protest.

How do you like them apple, Bob?"

Why would Bob care? When was the last time Bob worked at the check point let alone an Oregon check point? Why would TSA even care for that matter? Get a ruling that stripping naked isn’t grounds for not being allowed through a check point, and you have a true victory against TSA. However, stripping naked and being escorted out of the check point, doesn’t sound like a good solution to flying in my humble opinion.

These are the real stories people remember and should never forget...some people have no dignity and will suffer any and every abuse just to feel safe, but those who are outraged by those government agents who operate under the color of law will remember.

A North Texas man says he is outraged that airport security agents at Dallas Love Field strip-searched his wife and handled her feeding tube.

Melinda Deaton has a four-inch medical tube sticking out of her stomach. The medically implanted tube is needed for treatment after complications with a gastric bypass surgery.

Deaton frequently flies from Dallas to Minneapolis for treatment at the Mayo Clinic. She said Transportation Security Administration agents strip-searched her and touched her feeding tube Wednesday morning when she was on her way to three days of treatment.

Her husband, John Deaton, said the incident was unusual.

"They will see it on their screens, ask her what it is, she'd identify it, they may pat it on the outside of her clothing, accept it and go on," he said.

But that didn't happen Wednesday morning.

Even though she was wearing a medical bracelet with a USB drive on it that contained notes from her doctor, TSA agents still searched her.

"It outrages me to think that they can get away with that because they have a single female with a medical condition that is not going to stand up to authority figures and TSA, and say, 'Guys, this is really across the line,'" he said.

The play grenades, may not seem play or simulated when you are on a plane, with a menacing person, who stands there, with the simulated grenade in one hand and the pin in the other! And all he has to do, is look at you the passenger, and the Air Marshall, and tell them to put the gun down, or he will release the spoon-whether simulated or not, the grenade will split the plane in half-this is what the Air Marshall and the NTSB and the TSA worry about! What about your famales-what would they think-the Security people are not doing their jobs? What about the depressed man who took out a huge life insurance policy and plans to blow himself and you up in the plane? It is not just terrorism, they are fighting, it is the severely depressed. Until you people understand what security is, you will all scream about your rights! Be thankful you do not live in a forward area where you see maniacs walk into a bistro and blow themselves up! Taking you and your family with them! When that happens here, you will not ask about your rights, you will be screaming why aren't you protecting us! The military and law enforcement can only do so much to protect themselves and you and your families! When you people learn to be more observant to your surroundings, and do something to get involved and help to stop what is happening-then you should complain! Do any of you people know what real security is, other than looking at the Security Officer at the bank? Or the security officer at the mall does?To get in with the right Security Company, means one thing to the Professional-the company will back him all the way into court-so far all I see is a bunch of whiners complaining, because they don't have the right to carry loaded guns, simulated grenades, blasting caps and empty live 105mm shells onto a plane! Get a clue people...a simulated grenade, can be a dangerous thing, and can be altered within seconds of take off!Instead of complaining about your rights violation-think about the people who have elected to do the job, they are risking their health and their lives, to save yours! When they reach into a pocket, they don't know if there is a needle in there with HIV infection or not! They don't know if there is something else there, that will blow up in their faces or not, because of a trip wire, that was not detected!We have rights yes, but, a kinder word, and try saying: I know you have a difficult job, sir or ma'am, how can I help you make it go quicker for the both of us?And when you are through, instead of cursing-try smiling and say thank you, for your assistance...have a great day! A kinder word to these people will mean the difference between a bad day and a good day! They go home knowing the next day will be the same as it was today, foul language, cursing, we are nation of Godly people, but what does that say to someone who is visiting, when you use Gods Holy Name to curse a TSA agent who is doing nothing more than his or her job? How would you like to have someone in your face all day long, cursing you? All of you complainers, would slap them silly and quit! These people did nothing more, than accept a job, to start with as a paycheck...and now find they are thankful to have a job in our current economy-only to find that 90% of the people who fly, curse them, treat them badly, and make up alot of stories about them! Until you walk a mile in their shoes, and come back and say you have done so, and can prove it, then you should also keep your filthy mouths shut...

WOW, TSA strikes again in Dallas. It amazes me that incidents like this happen all the time and all TSA can say is we followed proper procedures. TSA has never explained the incident in Orlando where human remains were mishandled and disrespected. It will be interesting to see how TSA chooses to sweep this latest case of abuse and disrespect under the rug. It amazes me how one organization, TSA, could bring together so many abusive, thoughtless individuals into one work force.

Inert/replica grenades and guns are not harmful to the plane per se. But people have robbed banks with their fingers in ther pockets. Who's to say they couldn't hijack a plane with an inert item.

On the same note, people are stupid enough to pack these items so it's safe to say they are also dumb enough to take them out on the plane. Do that on a flight with a FAM on board and that person stands a good chance of getting shot in the face and then asked if the item is real.

"Inert/replica grenades and guns are not harmful to the plane per se. But people have robbed banks with their fingers in ther pockets. Who's to say they couldn't hijack a plane with an inert item."

Are you arguing that fingers should not be allowed to be placed in pockets while on planes? Or that fingers, in general, should be banned? /snark

Two things would prevent people with the real items from hijacking planes (much less inert/replicas), alert passengers and hardened cockpit doors. Pre-9/11 screening levels worked just fine without all this theatre and violation of everyone's rights.

"Inert/replica grenades and guns are not harmful to the plane per se. But people have robbed banks with their fingers in ther pockets. Who's to say they couldn't hijack a plane with an inert item. "

Hardened cockpit doors. Alert passengers. Also, are you arguing that fingers should be banned because they can be used to fool someone into thinking one has a gun? ;)

"On the same note, people are stupid enough to pack these items so it's safe to say they are also dumb enough to take them out on the plane. Do that on a flight with a FAM on board and that person stands a good chance of getting shot in the face and then asked if the item is real."

Now you're making my argument for me. FAMs on planes also make REAL items much less dangerous to planes, let alone inert/replicas. Not that I'm arguing to allow weapons on planes. Just that they're not the danger the public thinks they are.

By these comments it seems like everyone would rather just walk right into a plane without getting screened. Well have fun with that. I think everyone who hates TSA should all get into the same airplane that hasnt had passengers screened. Just let everyone bring on board whatever they please, "fake" grenades and all. I know i'd rather be on the plane that is screened so i can make sure i can go back home to my kids.